Category: Cycling Club

I love hearing about female cyclists encouraging other women to join them, and Wollongong Women’s Cycling Club is a great example of just that. I first heard about them from some of my colleagues on the Cycling NSW Women’s Commission and made contact with them via fellow Commission member Kym who is the secretary of the club. Here’s the result of our email chat: Q: Why did you start Wollongong Women’s Cycling Club as a subgroup of an existing Club? Who are the women behind it? Jules Verheyen founded the club in late 2015 after running She Rides cycle coaching

Women can find fulfilling jobs in the cycling industry and Laura Wilson, Business Development Manager with US bike company Specialized is proof of that. I’ve been lucky enough to know and work with Laura in her various roles at Specialized in Australia, over a number of years. She’s always impressed me with her professionalism, her warmth, and her willingness to help. I caught up with her via email recently. Q: How do you come to be working in such a male dominated industry like cycling? What industries did you previously work in? My career path has followed quite an interesting

One of the things I often get asked, and particularly from women, is “How do I find friends to ride my bike with?”. And you’ll be pleased to know that it’s not that hard to find like-minded riders, both women and men. When I first started riding a road bike about eight years ago, I did ride around on my own a fair bit, but over time I found like-minded riding companions who I now consider to be amongst my best friends. Over the years I’ve found lots of buddies, both women and men, some of whom have already come

If you take up road riding in your 30s or 40s as many of us do, one area you need to focus on if you want to advance, is improving your road bike skills. As children most of us rode a bike, but the majority of us were not formally taught, so we didn’t have the chance to learn any bike skills and this particularly applies to women. In my experience in meeting many female cyclists, women tend to approach cycling quite differently to men. Although many of us rode bikes as kids we usually did a few laps around

I’ve been riding a road bike regularly for about seven and a half years, and I’m realistic enough to know that I’m definitely in the minority. I’d guess that only about 10 per cent of regular road bike riders in my own home city of Sydney are women. But that doesn’t hold me back. In fact it only encourages me to keep riding and attempting to get more women to join me on a women’s bike ride. It would also be unrealistic for me to think I could do all my riding in the company of women or that I’d

I must confess that this week I’m struggling a bit to write a blog post. I have a great list of potential topics I wrote last week (thanks to an online course I’m currently undertaking) but I’ve just read through it and nothing inspires me. So you’ll have to excuse this week’s rather short and not overly focused offering. One thing I’ve noticed about the many women I speak to about cycling in the bike shop where I work is that many of them feel a bit intimidated by other (particular male) cyclists. They often say ‘oh, I’m not a

I’m a member of Cycling NSW’s Women’s Commission which I joined earlier this year. By way of background, the Women’s Commission (like a committee) works “across the sport of cycling in NSW to ensure the development of policies and initiatives which promote participation amongst women and girls of all ages into the sport and recreation of cycling”. I must admit that I wasn’t sure if volunteering for this role would be a complete waste of time and we’d just sit around ‘shooting the breeze’, but I’m pleased to report that the focus is on action and getting events happening. Here’s

I know that some of you are probably not into learning about history, but it was my favourite subject at school so you’ll have to indulge me. Recently my boss John (Ashfield Cycles) mentioned to me that the first ever women’s bike race in Australia actually took place in Ashfield (in Sydney’s inner west). I must admit that I was a bit dubious at the time so I decided to delve into it a bit more and headed to the Ashfield Library where I found a local publication with a whole chapter dedicated to it. So I won’t bore you

Earlier this year my cycling club LACC started a women’s only bunch ride which I was asked to lead. It started out as part of a pilot program for women’s bunch rides under the auspices of Cycling NSW, and when the pilot program concluded at the end of March, the regular participants voted to keep going with the weekly ride. I was very happy to continue with it and get real buzz out of encouraging other women to learn more about road cycling and riding in a group. It’s a straightforward ride, just four short laps around Sydney Olympic Park,

If you take up riding in your 30s or 40s as many of us do, one area you need to focus on if you want to advance, is to learn some bike skills. As children most of us rode a bike, but the majority of us were not formally taught, so we didn’t have the chance to learn any bike skills and this particularly applies to women. In my experience in meeting many female cyclists, women tend to approach cycling quite differently to men. Although many of us rode bikes as kids we usually did a few laps around the